Leinier Domínguez wins Olympic medal with American team

September 23, 2024

Cuban-American Grandmaster (GM) Leinier Domínguez, representing the USA, obtained the silver medal for teams at the World Chess Olympiad, held at the SYMA Sports and Conference Centre in Budapest, Hungary.

Known as the "Idol of Güines", Domínguez, took the podium with the American team, which finished in second place, only behind the powerful Indian selection.

While this was happening with Güines native Domínguez, his island compatriots were left far from the prominent positions in the Hungarian Olympiad.

Domínguez, who had already won an individual silver medal as first board for Cuba in the 2016 Bakú Olympiad, mostly played the role of third board on the American team, which also featured the notable Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, and Ray Robson.

With 2,748 ELO points and occupying the 13th position in the world ranking, Domínguez, who just this Monday, September 23, celebrates his 41st birthday, had a somewhat irregular performance in the tournament, but concluded with a positive balance of 5.5 points out of 9 possible.

With their collective performance, the United States accumulated 17 points in the Olympiad, finishing 4 units behind India (21), which won 10 of the 11 matches played.

The Indian team, which was crowned champion in its first in-person Olympiad after having shared the title with Russia in the 2020 virtual edition, only drew its match against Uzbekistan and suffered a single defeat in the 44 total games played.

The Cuban-American chess player began 2024 as the eighth-best player in the world, according to the ranking of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), after accumulating 2,752 Elo points.

At that time, Domínguez made history with this eighth position officially, because unofficially the idol of Güines had celebrated on Facebook a seventh position in the ranking, although only for a few weeks, before being surpassed by Alireza Firouzja.